[Franticfish]

What a fascinating read it is but theres so many questions I need answering.

Who is Nawahl and why does he just pick up Felisin and co. ?
Why didn't Nawhal do anything to save Kulp?
And the biggest annoyance, what are "Soletaken and D'ivers" and why does Felisin say that Kulp was a D'iver?

[Aptorian]

I don't recognize the name Nawahl. But I am assuming you're talking about the mage they meet with the undead servants.

The guy was in fact Gryllen, one of the most powerfull of the Soletaken D'ivers travelling to the convergence of the Path of Hands.

Gryllen ate Kulp and would have done the same to Baudin and Heboric if he hadn't been damaged by Baudin and forced to flee lest he be attacked by the Bear soletaken while wounded.

Where did you hear Felisin call Kulp a soletaken? I don't remember him being soletaken. If he had been I would have expected him to be drawn to the Path of Hands like the others.

Finally, I think if you do a bit of searching on the forum, you'll find plenty of threads on the subject of Soletaken and D'ivers.

Simply put Soletaken are people or beings who are capable of assuming a different form, these often being animal forms, like bears, wolves, etc. In their transformation they gain additional power be it strength, endurance, magical power, etc. They are thought to be practically immortal beings. It is unclear how you become soletaken, what the specific change does to you. Some may be born soletaken, some become soletaken through rituals or by ingesting or being exposed to soletaken blood.

Soletaken D'ivers are, it would seem, a broken form of Soletaken. As far as we know, they don't exist naturally. Most of the ones that exist are the last remnants of the First Empire beast ritual that went terribly wrong, but we have heard of other D'ivers. D'ivers are able to take on many form and may even be able to take different forms than just one type. The path of the D'ivers is a powerfull one, but also a dangerous one because it seems it affects the mind in more chaotic ways than the normal soletaken path. Where as a vanilla soletaken, you are in danger of becoming the beast, as a D'ivers your mind my completely fracture and you can go insane. Which is what it appears happened to the unsuspecting candidates in the First Empire ritual.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 21 September 2009 - 09:35 PM

[Nina]

Yes, Gryllen in fact introduces himself as "Nawahl Ebur".
As far I can remember, Soletaken and D'ivers are mentioned a number of times before in some scenes with Icarium and Mappo, including one in the temple of Iskaral Pust. If you come back and re-read it, you can figure out what are Soletaken and D'ivers and why they became suddenly active all around Raraku))

[Pilgrim]

The first time I read Deadhouse Gates the issue of Soletakens and D'ivers threw me too. Whenever you hear mention of Soletakens, just think "shapeshifter" as in the traditional idea of wereanimals, but without the issue of changing due to the moon phase. D'ivers is just a shapeshifter who changes into not one, but several of the particular animal.

It seems that the more animals a D'ivers can become, the more powerful it is, or vice-versa. As mentioned above, both Soletakens and D'ivers seem to all possess some sort of sorcery in addition to the shapeshifting.

Pilgrim